I continue to elaborate and test a structural theory of development, using population health as a criterion instead of average income or some measure of poverty. This substitution helps to make the case that sociology has a valid and independent position on the question of development, different and better than the World Bank's free market capitalism or the "global populist" reformism advocated by its opponents. In opposition to these, structural theory makes the radical "embeddedness" assumption that all economic processes are subordinate to the structure of "communities," that is, the varying capacities for problem solving availble to nations, provinces, villages, families, etc. Communities are assumed to have a capacity for generalized problem solving which, in combination with economic and health agencies, determine life expectancy. The particular contribution of my version of structural theory is to conceptualize and measure these capacities. The current title of the book (in progress) that promises to explain all this is The Social Causation of Population Health.
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